Home of the Snarkmaiden

Along with most of the rest of the country, we've been having a chilly week. Nothing on places like Madison and Minneapolis, with temperatures in single digits, but by local standards, damn' cold. Sleeping at night is complicated by the random pile of heat-seeking mammals weighting down the comforter making it tricky to roll over in bed, and pretty much impossible to pull the covers over whatever shoulder is exposed thereby. But by pulling out all the stops in my usual cold-weather layering routine I've been managing to keep reasonably warm. I hate to guess what the electric bill will be like for December, though. And I broke down and ordered a whole suite of Thermaskin long underwear from Land's End. Of course, by the time it arrives, the cold spell will have broken and the longies will be temporarily redundant. But I expect they'll come to some use later in the winter.

Also had a hot toddy for the first time this weekend. Hal and I had meant to get to get to Cederberg Tea House to try the South African tea that friend M. raves about, but in the event the tunnel on 99 was closed making traffic on any southerly approach to Queen Anne pretty well unspeakable, and so we gave up and retreated to dear old Hudson for something warm and consoling. It being too damn' cold to have a Bloody Mary (my usual at Hudson, because they are reDONKulously good there), I decided to try a hot toddy instead. Lovely. Really quite nice. I've been playing with recipes since and have decided that whole cloves are a mistake unless you spike them into the lemon peel because otherwise you just wind up with a mouth full of cloves on the first sip, but otherwise it's a gorgeous drink to curl up around when it's too friggin' cold to do much besides huddle under a blanket and a warm dog and watch The Good Wife.